Conventional traverse rods generally include a set of carriers, each of which is attached to a curtain. A master carrier is used to open and close the curtain, with each carrier being attached to the next carrier by the curtain. As the master carrier pulls the curtain, the curtain pulls the next carrier and so forth until the end of the curtain is reached. This use of the curtain to pull the carriers results in stress on the fabric of the curtain which may eventually cause tearing.
In addition, conventional traverse rods generally are of metal design and require the use of a custom bracket to attach the rod to a wall or ceiling. Typically, these rods do not have conventional circular curtain rings for attaching the curtain to the rod but use a hole in the carrier to hold the curtain. These rods also generally do not allow a decorative finial to be attached to the ends of the rod with the exception of a design that uses a hollow metal finial that loosely fits into the end of a metal rod. Because of this, many conventional finials cannot be used with these types of rods.